loud message to members of congress and put a human face on the issue. and by human, let's be clear, we mean a human who has been bussed in by an oil company. at yesterday's rally many oil company employees arrived wearing t-shirts and signs that featured the logo of an ostensibly grass rootsy sounding organization called energy citizens. energy citizens is not actually a grass roots organization at all. it's a coalition of industry groups and conservative advocacy organizations. but image is everything here. so while the audience was filled with employees of oil companies who had been encouraged to attend by their employers and in some cases bussed in, the american petroleum institute was smart enough to keep the oil companies off of the speakers list. the keynote speaker was the owner of the houston astros. the master of ceremonies was one of the announcers from the houston live stock show and

radio. woo! and the entertainment highlight was a videotaped performance by country music sensation trace adkins. grass roots at its finest. we actually called representatives for mr. adkins today to find out how much that sort of booking would cost. try to figure out if you really could do that if you were on a grass roots budget? they told us they would get back to us. what's important about this story for american politics right now is that a number of oil companies that are members of the american petroleum institute who are represented by the american petroleum institute in washington claim to be in favor of the climate change legislation. these companies claim to be in favor of the legislation that this rally in houston and many others like it are being held to oppose. the companies are in favor of the legislation but belong to an organization that's against it. that is telling them to even have their employees go to these rallies to put a human face on the opposition. the sort of weird and

contradictory, right? actually it's not weird at all. it's exactly the way these things work. these guys are pros. here's another example. this is united for health reform.com. it's a very lovely sort of relaxing website almost. very well laid out. it has an image of a happy family doing stretches in a field. they're surrounded by the message, tell congress to unite for health care reform. it's full of glowing praise about achieving meaningful reform as a goal for all americans. now, the united in united for health reform.com refers to united health group, the second largest health insurer in the country. united health group is most famous in the current health care debate for its connection to the lewin group which is part of one of united health group's

wholly owned subsidiaries and the lewin group is the group producing these studies that are so frequently cited by republican members of congress about how risky health care reform would be. >> according to the lewin group 119 million americans would lose the private coverage that they currently have. >> lewin and associates, a consulting firm, health care experts -- >> in fact, the lewin group did a study. >> well, the lewin associates, a very respected technical firm -- >> there is one study from the lewin group. >> one firm is telling us, the lewin group. >> what you'll have from the lewin think tank that specializes in health care -- >> the lewin group providing the anti-talking points for americans and the dramatic bad numbers about all the bad things that will happen if we reform health care that happen to be off what the nonpartisan sources say by a factor of ten? that group is actually united health. the insurance company. but again, united health on the surface maintains it is supportive of health care reform. the lesson here is to watch what these corporations do not just what they say.

the other lesson here is that when you see a big, organized purportedly grass roots event, and just as a citizen or a blogger or a reporter or elected official if you are trying to assess the political import of the big, organized, purportedly grass roots event, you should find out who organized it. you should look at the fine print on the signs. energy citizens? go to the website. go to energycitizens.org. click through the about us and participating organizations page. click on that benign looking acronym api to see what that stands for. american petroleum institute. the fineprint is where you can make out the strategy through these sparse, sparse, ostensible grass roots. many of the groups are also involved in promoting a march on d.c. on september 12th. you can go to the website. 9.12.dc.org to learn more about it. the fine print on this one is quite literally financial fine print. this antitax, antibig

government, antispecial interest march on washington, this citizen uprising, this against the man movement is being organized and run by, oh, freedom works. and nonprofit freedom works has just hiked up the amount of money that it's charging organizations to take part in this grass roots march. if you want to distribute your group's materials at the march that used to cost a low price of $2500. now it'll be $10,000. please. $10,000 will also buy your organization a speaking role at the march. which is after all very free markety. freedom works says it is just trying to offset costs for stuff like stages and equipment but charging $10,000 bucks to take part in a grass roots march? sort of like getting the millionaire owner of the houston astros to keynote your grass

roots rally that's being attended by oil company employees who have been bussed in by their bosses. when the press reports on these events to assess their political importance, when politicians consider the message for them from these types of rallies, trust me, the most interesting stuff is in the fine print. joining us now is senator bernie sanders, independent of vermont. he is a member of the senate health, education, labor and pension committee. thanks for coming back on the show. >> great to be with you. >> the comment about the health care fight this year is that many of the big corporate interests in health care have been brought along, that they're pro reform this time around, at least more so than in the '90s. is this a situation where we should be sort of watching what they do not what they say? >> absolutely. please understand, there is a reason why in the united states we spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation on earth. and there is a reason why the insurance companies year after year make huge profits and pay their ceos tens and tens of millions of dollars in compensation salaries. the reason for that is that these guys exert enormous

influence over the political process in washington. right now according to "the washington post" the health care industry is spending $1.4 million every single day on lobbying alone, just lobbying. then gout our friends on wall street who precipitated the great recession we're in right now. they're spending a fortune to make sure there is not financial reform. then you have our friends in the oil industry and the coal industry spending huge amounts of money making sure we don't deal with global warming and greenhouse gas emissions so what you are doing, rachel, is extremely important and unfortunately it happens far too rarely. that is you are exposing how things happen and the power of big money in the political process and i applaud you for doing that. >> well, thank you. we're just trying to report what's really happening. it started with these town halls but it really is so many of these grass rootsy looking

events. i have to ask you, as a long-time member of congress now in the senate after having been in the house for many years, is there a real impact on legislation of these industry, ginned up events? does it affect votes and the way members of congress see issues to see people at these events? >> of course it does. absolutely it does. you've got tv cameras there and people are yelling and screaming, get government out of health care. you know, and does that have an impact on the average member of congress? of course it does. of course it does. i think many members of congress become intimidated by that and then on top of that you got lobbying. on top of that you got campaign contributions. on top of that you have all kinds of -- does this have an impact? of course. there is a reason why the united states is the only nation in the industrialized world not to have a national health care program guaranteeing health care to all people and that is one of the reasons. >> we are getting some late breaking reporting tonight that

on the health care issue the white house may be considering breaking up the legislation into parts. some parts of it to be passed presumably through budget reconciliation rules so it would only require 50 votes. it wouldn't be susceptible to a republican filibuster in the senate. do you know, do you know if that reporting is true? is that being considered and what's your opinion about that idea? >> look, first thought, i have believed from day one that when the democratic caucus has 60 members we have a strong majority in the house, we have a democratic president. while we of course want bipartisanship but if you have the republicans stone walling, stone walling, if you don't have one republican in congress supportive of a public option then finally what you have to say to the democratic caucus from the senate, look. we got 60 votes. let's say no to republican fill busters and let's come up with strong legislation.

now, there has been discussion about dividing this thing up. for example i think it is very clear that the overwhelming majority of the american people are disgusted with the private health insurance companies who deny health care. we hear story after story about this in my office, deny people health care because they have a preexisting condition. and then you have these private health insurance companies who are refusing to renew peoples insurance because they committed the crime of being sick in the previous year. meanwhile we got a million people a year, this year going bankrupt in the united states because of medically related bills. i think what you can do is be dealing with insurance reform. we could deal with primary health care reform. rachel, we have 60 million americans in this country who do not have access to a doctor on a regular basis. they end up in the emergency room at great costs or they get sick and end up in the hospital. that is insane. so what we can do is greatly expand community health centers all over this country.

we can greatly expand the national health service core. get doctors, primary health care doctors into rural areas, into urban areas. we can do a heck of a lot more in terms of disease prevention. so that we're not just spending money treating diabetes or heart conditions. we are trying to prevent it. we can do more in quality control, understanding why certain facilities provide high quality care at low cost while others do exactly the opposite so there's a lot that you can do quickly which i think should have the support of the vast majority of the american people. we say we're making progress and we can tackle some of the harder issues a few months down the line. >> senator bernie sanders, independent of vermont. provocative stuff. thank you for your time tonight, sir. nice to see you. >> good to be with you, rachel. earlier in the 2000s americans weren't really allowed to show up for some of president bush's official appearances if they were wearing t-shirts that opposed president bush. now we have people showing up at president obama's public events carrying assault rifles. at least one of these show off your guns obama protestors has ties to the militia movement. specifically the part of the

militia movement where people ended up in federal prison on weapons and explosives charges in the '90s. "new york times" columnist frank rich joins us to discuss that next. first, one more thing. a followup to a story we've been covering about the right wing lobbying firm and its admission that it forged letters on behalf of the so-called clean coal industry to look like they came from local nonprofit organizations. you'll recall bonner's explanation was that it was a temporary employee who has since been fired who sent out just a few letters purporting to be from the naacp, from a hispanic group, from a women's group, from a board on aging. these were letters that urged three house democrats to vote against climate change legislation that was making its way through congress. well, now congressman ed markey has released five more fake letters. a busy temp, huh? and we can reveal the identities

of the second batch now of local groups that had their identities stolen by bonner and associates on behalf of the coal industry. they are the dunmore senior citizen center in dunmore, pennsylvania. the butler senior center in pennsylvania, the erie center on health and aging in erie, pennsylvania and the slippery rock senior citizen in slippery rock, pennsylvania. and the senior citizen in charlottesville, virginia. all of these groups had their identities stolen. the house committee investigating the fraud has asked bonner and associates to review a total of 50 hate 58 letters that were sent before the vote on climate change to determine if there are still more frauds, still more advocacy groups have their letterhead and good name stolen on behalf of coal. two important updates to a ever worn your clothes in the shower? if you're using other moisturizing body washes, you might as well be. you see, their moisturizer sits on top of skin, almost as if you're wearing it. only new dove deep moisture has nutriummoisture, a breakthrough formula with natural moisturizers...

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we have two important updates to a story we brought you earlier this week. when president obama spoke to the veterans of foreign wars convention in phoenix on monday, you'll recall he was greeted by a dozen or so regular citizens, not police officers, not secret service officers, who were openly carrying firearms. it's been revealed that a right wing online radio host organized the people with guns near the president stunt, including the man who carried an assault rifle who we pictured and talked about on this show. the second important update about this story is about the not just metaphorical ties between the open display of weaponry by protestors against the president, in other words

the use of intimidation as a political tactic, and the political violence in our own country's history, even our own country's recent history. we're now learning about actual, direct links between the gun stunt this week at president obama's event in arizona and a militia group that was convicted in the 1990s of conspiring to blow up federal buildings. ernest hancock who carried a nine millimeter pistol himself at the phoenix protest and interviewed other people who were carrying guns used to work for a group that defended a violent militia group called the vipers. it was a group that called themselves the viper reserves and they formed to defend the viper militia. the viper militia said they were opposed to what they called the new world order. they practiced advanced weapons training including exploding rockets and making fertilizer bombs in a desert town about a hundred miles from the one-time home of timothy mcveigh.

12 members of the viper militia were charged in 1996 with plotting to blow up at least seven government buildings. federal agents seized as evidence dozens of firearms including machine guns, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, grenades, body armor, gas masks and hundreds of pounds of ammonium nitrate which is of course the main ingredient used in the bomb that blew up the murrah federal building in oklahoma city killing 168 people. in the end, 11 of the viper militia men were sentenced to federal prison terms ranging from one year to six years. in a phone interview today with this show mr. hancock who again was not part of the group but who defended them describes himself as having done pr for the group and he called the sentences for the viper militiamen, quote, an injustice like you wouldn't believe. he also in his interview with our staff did not deny any of the ties he's alleged to have with the viper militia. when we asked him about convicted oklahoma city bomber timothy mcveigh, mr. hancock told us, quote, i don't know which role he played. i know he got blamed. so when a dozen people openly

display firearms near the president, again, not police officers, not secret service officers, but citizens, and they're organized by someone with this kind of background, what's the next thing that we talk about in our political discussion in this country? joining us now is the "new york times" columnist frank rich. his most recent piece on sunday gives some historical context to the gun toting protestors showing up at these town hall events. nice to see you. >> nice to see you. >> in your column this weekend you talked about similarities between the political climate today and the political climate in the early '60s, of course, with looming large in that political climate the assassination of john kennedy in 1963. were you intending to make that explicit allegory because you're worried about assassination attempts? >> the truth is i've been worried for sometime even before the events surrounding these

health care town halls. it began during the campaign where people were shouting, treason, and worse, about obama at palin rallies and essentially no one would, in the republican party, would condemn it. there were people, you know, appearing in nazi regalia and all the rest and it's been stepping up since then. the department of homeland security as you know released a report in april talking about a rise in 1990s-like militia activity on the far right and had various incidents including the george tiller killing, the shootup of the holocaust museum in washington, and now this stuff going on at these town halls. i think we have to worry about right wing political violence, whether we have to hope and pray really that the president is well protected but doesn't necessarily manifest itself in a presidential assassination. it can manifest itself in things like oklahoma city or what as you were just talking about what was contemplated apparently in phoenix only a year or two later.

>> i have to say that i am -- we've been talking about this a lot on the show because of what's been happening at these town halls because i think it has been shocking and to see people turning up with guns especially people turning up with guns in conjunction with threats that reference earlier acts of political violence in the united states and thinking specifically of that young man at the new hampshire event holding the sign with the saying on it that mcveigh was wearing on his shirt the day he was arrested after the bombing, we've been talking about this because you have to but i'm uncomfortable talking about it. >> i am, too, and i'm uncomfortable writing about it. >> yeah. >> i'm just old enough, i was a kid, to remember in 1963 waking up to the horrible events in dallas. even as a kid i happened to be growing up in washington, d.c. and it was palatable to me all this hate talk about kennedy and this sort of crazy fear. then it was the john burke society. they were worried the government

was trying to flouridate the water and poison everybody. they thought dwight eisenhower was a communist tool. but there were a lot of threats. there was a lot of stuff going on that in tone resembles this. and i think we have to try to tread a cautious line here but we have to be vigilant about it. i think we have a problem. this has been going on for too many months and started with the ascent of barack obama. it always seems to happen when there's a new liberal group taking over. it's not coincidence that the militias started up again in the 1990s when clinton came in or when kennedy came in, the right wing stuff in the early '60s. it's now of course complicated by the fact that we have an

african-american which is even more of an affront, unfortunately, to some of these people. >> i have incredible faith in the secret service and i have incredible faith in the professionals whose job it is to actually keep not only politicians safe but also to keep federal building safe. i think we have great security officers in this country and i think that they, one of the things that we can be sort of proud of and sure of is the professionalism of that class of people involved in law enforcement and, therefore, i worry about, and wonder about what citizens who aren't law enforcement officers, who aren't directly responsible for keeping other people safe, what responsibility we can all take, us in the media and us as citizens in trying to change the tone and ratchet it down and trying to make it a safer atmosphere. >> i think we all have a role to play and i think politicians have a role to play. it's shocking to me that very few republican leaders have really condemned this kind of activity. in fact, they've sort of

encouraged it. well, it's the second amendment right and so on. where does that get us? while i have the same faith you do in the people who protect us, the holocaust museum was not some obscure little back water. it was very understandably a well protected site in the center of washington, d.c. and an 80 something-year-old man could go in there and create havoc and commit murder. >> you also said in your column this sunday that the twisted distortions about death panels and federal conspiracies to pull the plug on grandma are too unhinged from the reality of any legislation. these bogus fears are psychological proxies for bigger traumas. do you mean that health care is essentially a vehicle to get into much deeper pathologies? >> i don't think health care, per se, but i think this talking about death panels, this bogus stuff, has ratcheted up for people who are automatically

paranoid about the federal government, feel it's out to get them. it's now become a proxy for everything they don't like about the government, everything they don't like about a liberal leaning administration, everything they don't like about change. that's another thing going on now. not just the obama brand of change. we've gone through this economic turmoil. people are frightened. manufacturing industries have collapsed. my own industry is sort of half collapsed. people are on edge anyway. and these town halls seem to be a handy way to vent. >> frank rich, "new york times" columnist and very welcome guest on this show, thanks very much for coming in. >> thank you. here's the quote of the day. i haven't done anything legally wrong. that was senator john ensign's hearty defense today of his affair with an underling married to another of his underlings and that affair featured getting that couple's soon job with the republican party and paying the

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coming up senator john ensign of nevada and of the secretive "c" street house in washington tells reporters that his affair while in office wasn't nearly as bad as bill clinton's affair. the one ensign said clinton should resign for.

that story is coming up along with a sharp, serious international hatred between two countries that is now playing out over a pop music contest. plus, senator max bachus is attacked by the youtubes. kent jones investigates. first, it's time for news from iraq and afghanistan. and life during war time. it was six years ago today that a suicide bomber crashed a truck packed with explosives into the united nations compound in baghdad. that bomb killed 22 employees including the top u.n. coordinator for iraq. it was the deadliest attack ever on u.n. personnel. today on this anniversary of that attack another tremendous wave of bombings in baghdad. nearly a hundred people killed, another 600 wounded. at 11:00 a.m. local time a suicide truck bomb hit iraq's finance ministry killing at least 30 people. the blast was so strong it knocked down part of a nearby overpass. then just minutes later a

second, more powerful bomb tore apart the ten-story foreign ministry building killing at least 60 people and destroying part of a main highway. the explosion left a crater 30 feet deep and 60 feet wide. cars were seen burning in the streets. many with people still inside of them. elsewhere on the capital mortars and rocket fire landed in a central market and a residential area west of the city killing at least eight people. reuters reports there was even a mortar attack inside the supposedly secure green zone today. that attack disrupted a ceremony in which u.n. workers were commemorating the blast six years ago. that destroyed their headquarters and killed sergio de mello. meanwhile, in the other country in which we are at war in afghanistan that country is having a presidential election tomorrow, the second since hamid karzai was installed after we invaded in 2001. the taliban had threatened violence leading up to this election which they do not want to take place and they apparently meant that threat. today alone six american troops

were killed in afghanistan. six. killed by both gunfire and a roadside bomb. that brings the total death toll for american troops in afghanistan this month to 32. 14 afghans, including police officers and election workers were also killed by roadside bombs today. in kabul the capital there was long, deadly gun fight at a bank and rockets landed near the presidential palace and a police station. the afghan government is responding to this upsurge in violence by announcing that the press will not be allowed to report it. at least they won't be allowed to report it on election day. the foreign ministry issued a statement yesterday that news media would be prohibited from broadcasting any incidents of violence between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. tomorrow. journalists have reacted exactly the way you'd expect them to. the head of the independent journalists association of afghanistan saying, quote, we will not obey this order. we are going to continue with our normal reporting and broadcasting of news.

another news outlet told cnn today that they won't heed the order either because they consider it to be unconstitutional. that said, to the extent the news blackout is effective, thanks to the internet machine we might have a bit of a work-around for getting on-the-ground news reports out of afghanistan. there is a new website called alive in afghanistan.org and it's almost a formalization of the kind of citizen reporting that the world watched on twitter from iran during the post election protests there. people in afghanistan including professional journalists can submit incident descriptions and interviews and reports by e-mail or by text or even by twitter. they can even fill out a form on the website if that's all they can get to. then a alive in afghanistan maps those incidents and indexes them so anybody can go to the website, click on one of the red dots on the map of afghanistan that they post there that indicates there's news from that spot and then you can read about what has happened there. it's also got a really handy news feed over there on the

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on june 16th while standing in front of a public restroom sign, senator john ensign admitted he had had an extra marital affair with someone on his staff. now, for the first time since then senator john ensign is speaking publicly about that affair. he told an assembled crowd at the chamber of commerce in nevada that, quote, i've said i'm sorry. i can't say i'm sorry enough. i made a big mistake in my life and i apologize once again to all of you. now, the initial major reason that senator ensign's affair was big news was because he had railed against bill clinton and against senator larry craig of idaho when each of those men was caught out for sexual indiscretions. he said both of those men should resign.

but when senator ensign was caught? no resignation. before the speech he gave today, senator ensign did speak with the associated press. he told the reporter that his infidelity was different and less terrible than bill clinton's infidelity because, quote, president clinton stood right before the american people and he lied to the american people. you remember that famous day he lied to the american people, plus the fact i thought he committed perjury. that's why i voted for the articles of impeachment. of course back in 1998 as kenneth starr was alleging president clinton committed perjury then representative john ensign had a different perspective, calling on clinton to resign, resign rather than face impeachment, explaining at the time, quote, i came to that conclusion recently and frankly it's because of what he put his whole cabinet through and what he has put the country through. he had no credibility left. that's what he said at the time. nothing about perjury. nothing about lying. just a call for president

clinton's resignation based on the effect of his actions, what he had put the country through. and of course his credibility. it's worth noting senator ensign's original confession left out lots and lots and lots and lots of really tawdry, verging on even maybe not very legal details. like the job that he gave his mistress's son at the republican party. and the money that his mom and dad paid to his mistress and her family after it was all said and done. according to senator ensign today resignation is still not on the table for him because, quote, i haven't done anything legally wrong. joining us now is jon ralston columnist for "the las vegas sun" and host of "face to face with jon ralston." thanks for coming on the show tonight. >> thanks for having me back. >> senator ensign chose for his first public appearance since admitting to the affair the firmly, nevada, chamber of commerce luncheon. he got big applause, standing ovation, and answered only prescreened questions from the audience. do you think that was by design today?

>> oh, there's no question about it. fernlee which is not far from reno, nevada, is the kind of place john ensign wanted to go, a chamber of commerce crowd and as you said they had these note cards. he wasn't going to take any questions that were uncomfortable at all. i was surprised that he answered any questions from the ap reporter, rachel. >> when the ap asked why his situation was different than president clinton's when he had called on clinton to resign ensign volunteered his rationale for the other resignation he called for. he said the other two times one was an admitted felon and the other was a convicted felon so, you know, i mean i never called for anybody else, okay, as far as if you look at the, you know, other people who have been accused of things or any of that kind of thing. i never said anything. but it was when it was passed over the legal, it was when it passed over the legal limit. i think what he's saying there

is, you should resign if your sexual indiscretion produces some sort of felony conviction not when you're merely accused of things? >> well, of course as you pointed out that's not what he said back then. i find some of what he said today to be just remarkable. first of all, this is a guy who spent most of his career up on a high horse moralizing. he gets knocked off that horse and what does he do now? he gets back up on it and starts moralizing again and putting himself on a higher moral plain than bill clinton and whoever these other two people are. i assume larry craig is one of them though he doesn't have his facts straight. what's most remarkable about this to me, rachel, is by bringing up bill clinton, bill clinton and what he said about bill clinton makes the case for john ensign to resign better than anybody else. you had the quote. he said that bill clinton had lost credibility and should resign. how can john ensign make the case he hasn't lost credibility? whatever you think of bill clinton he wasn't out there moralizing and pointing his finger at people who had committed indiscretions.

if that doesn't cause loss of credibility on the guy who talks so much about the sanctity of marriage is found to have had an affair with a staffer who is the wife of his best friend who also worked for him and he still has credibility? i just find that astonishing he would bring up bill clinton. >> senator ensign said today that he won't comment any further on the affair because of these ongoing investigations but as you point out, it is remarkable, he did answer at least some questions from the associated press reporter today. it would seem to me like if he's been quiet for this long for this many weeks since june 16th not making himself publicly available he would at least know what he was going to say on this issue when he was asked the inevitable question. he seems to not have anything planned to say when asked these things. what do you make of that in terms of what you know about him as a politician leading up to this scandal? >> you know, it's the opposite of the john ensign we know, he's very polished, glib, quick on his feet usually. you read the entire quote, rachel. it was remarkable for its

inarticulateness i thought. what's amazing is you would say this guy has chutzpah to actually go in there and try to take an interview but it's not chutzpah i think. that's a positive quality. it's just the unbridled arrogance he's shown throughout this. he doesn't have to answer questions. nobody wants any more details of the affair thank you very much. but what people do want to know is about these payments. he claimed they were gifts from his father, $96,000 to the family. that story again we're going to use the word, hey, it has no credibility whatsoever. he won't answer any questions of that using the cover of the senate ethics committee investigation but he has not produced any canceled check or checks whatsoever to back up his original story. why should anyone believe that story? and i think those are the questions he really doesn't want to answer. >> jon ralston columnist for "the las vegas sun" and host of "face to face with jon ralston"

and one of the tip of the spear reporters on this story. thanks for joining us. coming up on "countdown" -- turns out the insurance companies are making more profit on the dollar than casinos. whistleblower wendell potter will take keith inside the dark side of the insurance business. next on this show if you're a red sox fan you think you hate the yankees, right? hatfields think they hate mccoys. you want bitter rivalry? stand by for azerbaijan versus armenia. and the european equivalent of "american idol" factors into it. there's bado europop, and theres cops involved. all not kidding. trust me. ♪

(laughing through computer) good night, buddy. good morning, dad.

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"american idol" and "so you think can you dance" and "america's got talent" n europe, they have "eurovision." it's been broadcast every may since 1956. it's one of the longest running tv programs of all time. each of 43 countries picks a musical act to represent that country. and then millions of people vote for the winner. we have "eurovision" to thank -- or to blame -- for abba, celine dion, julio iglesias and the poor river band people who can't move their arms. although only europe participates, "eurovision" has grown fans because it's an olympic grade display of truly over the top i can't believe this is happening acting. but there is news about this year's contest that is way darker than the usual belgium versus holland, sequins versus

satin. azerbaijan and armenia fought in war 15 years ago over a region. don't worry, there is no spelling test here. the important point is that both countries are really sore about it. and they're right up on top of each other and there is an azerbaijan enclave on top of armenia. everything is a sore issue between these two. both of these countries did pretty well. ass as azerbaijan came in third and armenia came in tenth. ♪ >> now you see why i'm into this. this is the azerbaijan entry -- ♪

good! sorry. which of those would you vote for? hard to choose. but the bbc reports today that now three months after "eurovision" because remember it happens in may, police in azerbaijan have called if for questioning people who live in azerbaijan but who voted for armenia, the country's arch rival. apparently, they know for sure somehow that 43 people in azerbaijan voted for the dreaded armenians. you vote for text message and the azerbaijan national ministry has been calling people who voted for armenia in for questioning. the national security ministry has confirmed that they've done this to reuters. they have confirmed that they are questioning azerbaijanis for the crime of voting for the wrong song. which is, of course, another

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we turn now to our interwebs terminology correspondent kent jones. >> hi, rachel. sometimes it's hard to keep up with all of the computer lingo. >> fair enough. >> like this -- montana senator matt baucus, in whose conservativem bipartisan blue care hands the health care reform rests faced noisy protesters at a conference last week. senator baucus told "the new york times" -- there were a couple of people in the crowd with youtube -- yeah -- youtubes plural. hang on, i'm having a flashback.

>> hang on, i hear there's rumors on the internets. >> one of the things i used tonight googles is to pull up maps. >> and who can forget alaska ted stevens' description of the internet? >> the internet is not something that you have done something on.

it's a series of trucks. it's a series of tubes. >> when it comes to talking about the digital world, some of our politicians seemed to have their heads up their analog. let's see if i can help. first, it's not youtubes, it's just youtube. there's just the one. it's like the plural of moose, which is moose, not moos. same with internet. there are no internets. just like there are no sheeps. also, youtube is a video sharing site. not some kind of device to record images and sound. people call that a camera. not that new, really. another tip, it's not the google but it is correct to say the internet. for instance, it's "i googled poppy on the internet." not, "i use internets to find poppy with the google." one more piece of advice, senator baucus, it's pronounced public option. it gets easier the more times you say it. >> excellent work, kent. thank you. >> thank you. thank you for watching. >> time to close the deal. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, the closer. barack obama knows how to win. he got into columbia he went to harvard law, made president of the law review, within a seat in the u.s. senate, won the democratic nomination for president and overtook john mccain to win the job. he closes well. and now it's time to start the kick for health care reform. the make or break test of his first year presidency. it's going to take a strong close for him to win, to claim the kind of break-through that will make the history books, the

way i see it, he's got three ways to go at this point. one, they can challenge the senate rules and ram through a bill with just 50 votes with the help of the vice president to break the tie. that's what today's lead in the new york times suggested they're threatening to do. number two, they can go for a moderate bill politically sellable to a few republicans and get the 60 senate votes needed for regular passage. three they can go back and build a dramatic rock 'em sock 'em liberal bill, stand ready to take the loss and blame the republicans for the failure. what all three option require is democratic unity of some kind. you can't even blame the republicans if the demonstrates don't hold together. today george steph no lis dropped this bomblet that president obama may deploy the clintons into the country to help him forge the democ